Moms of Many... DOGS!!!

[sk8boarder15]

Does anyone here have lots of dogs? I have 5, plus my roomates Basset means we have 6 in the house! We decided that's our limit due to our yard not being that big... but I was wondering what do you with lots of dogs do to keep up!

Any tips or tricks with dealing with all the things that come with having lots of dogs? 

[WildDoula]

Oh yes, we have dogs.

We have 9.

4 Rottie mixes (2 Rott/Aussie Shephards, 1 Rott/Mastiff, and 1 Rott/Pit).

4 Miniature Pinschers, they are all show dogs that are currently working on their Championships with the AKC.

1 medium mix breed, we think he's a Spitz mix but not sure. 

It's hard keeping up, but manageable.

We scoop twice a day for the big dogs to keep the yard smelling better and cleaner. Our small dogs and the Spitz are trained to potty on piddle pads (hoping to litter box train here soon), so the mess is minimal, but we still clean 4 ish times per day on average. Could be minimized by outdoor training all of them, but we like the little ones to stay in most of the time.

We keep the large dogs outside during the day, so they aren't tracking in dirt all day. Little ones stay inside most of the time, like I said.

We buy toys from either the dollar store or Walmart (they have some 1$ toys here and there) since they get chewed so quickly. We buy treats in bulk, and they only get 1 Milkbone per day when we aren't working on training. Training we alternate days, so everyone gets individual training time.

We are seriously considering sending a few to daycare for part days once or twice a week for extra exercise and socialization. It's tough finding time to make it to the dog park since we have to go in pairs.

[sk8boarder15]

Our dogs are 3 little dogs - one is a chihuahua/? 15 lbs of cuteness, a corgi/beagle mix, and a new puppy that is probably border collie/basset (maybe corgi).

And 2 big dogs, a GSD/Malmute mix, and an AKC Irish Wolfhound(he's my baby and a therapy dog in training). Our roommate has a purebred Basset Hound. We run the little chi-mix in agility and are looking to run all the others but the wolfhound. 

The big two spend most of the day in the yard here too. There's just more room to play! Not enough room in the house for wolfhound to really play. The GSD always wants to be outside anyway, he LOVE rain, mud, snow, etc...

We poop scoop once a week when we aren't in the yard a lot, so bassically all year but summer, when we poop scoop whenever we are out there. 

The hardest thing for me is keeping up with the HAIR. I have a roomba that I try to run in the kitchen daily, but often forget, and I try to vaccum the living room daily as well (thats where my son plays a lot). The dogs dont come upstairs much so once a week or so is fine up there. 

Also have an issue with two of our males peeing in the house. Both are rescues that were not neutered till adulthood and I think thats the issue.... they only pee on carpet, so as long as they are in the kitchen they are fine, I just wish I could let them in the whole house. They are also very sneaky and Its really hard to catch them in the act. I can tell its them becuase they are the only two that lift thier leg to pee and mark things, and I can tell which one it is by the height. The GSD is a LOT taller than the corgi! lol!

[Arduinna]

I only have 3 right now, but years ago we had 7. Two red bone coonhounds, a blue tick, a walker hound, a lab, a chow and a golden retriever. We lived in the boonies on acreage though. I have no tips lol. Right now we are training our East German line GSD puppy so we won't be adding to the pack anytime soon.

[WildDoula]

Have you tried running a shedding blade over them? It helps A LOT with the hair. I do it every few days or so, and the only suggestion I have is to do it outside or in a place when you plan to clean up immediately afterwards, since it kinda gets hair everywhere. I use one like this: http://www.amazon.com/JW-Pet-Company-GripSoft-Shedding/dp/B0002AQPNE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1300912621&sr=8-3

If someone is home quite a bit, you can train them to stop marking just like you would potty training, you just have to be super watchful since marking is so quick and sneaky. It shouldn't take too long though, if you're diligent, since they're older dogs and know what's up as far as what's okay and what isn't. In the meantime, I might suggest a belly band if it's really bad: http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Solution-Washable-Male-Medium/dp/B000FJD5ZS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300912680&sr=8-1, and probably only if you don't have a dog door or can block it off so you have to let them out to potty, so you can take the band off then let them out.

Kind of a hassle, but it's worth it.